Bio-diversity museum in dire neglect

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, April 5

Lack of coordination among major concerned authorities to work on the scientific building for the Natural History Museum under Tribhuvan University has put the plan at stake for a decade. Thousands of specimens have been accumulated in a dilapidated unscientific building since 1975.

“TU indicates the responsibility towards the Ministry of Education (MoE), which points it to the University Grant Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The MoF shows that the government is solely accountable for including the issue in the National Planning Commission and carrying out the construction plan of about Rs 560 million,” said Prof Dr Keshab Shrestha, chief at the NHM.

According to the NHM, there are at least 15,880 species of wildlife, flora and fauna in the country. The NHM, only biodiversity museum of the nation, houses 55,000 specimens of wildlife, plants and fossils, which covers the 60 percent samples out of the total species. Shrestha said, “The complexity of shifting responsibility to each other has overshadowed the sensitivity and concerns of the national biodiversity to preserve them.”

In 1999, TU provided 200 ropanis of land on university premises at Kirtipur for the construction of the museum hall. “But we are confined in a dilapidated and congested ordinary building just like a hut made in 1960 in about a hector of land for a school hostel,” he said.

Though it would be the concern of the Ministries of Forestry and Soil Conservation, and Environment, Science and Technology, and Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, the government and the MoE, who must take the responsibility, are totally indifferent to the matter, said Shrestha. “The MoE said that it wouldn’t take initiative without permission from the UGC.”

Ram Prabesh Yadav, spokesperson of the MoE, expressed ignorance on the issue and referred it to ask co-chairperson Lekhnath Paudel for the details. “I exactly can’t say in detail where the process has reached. However, this must be forwarded through UGC as the museum falls under TU,” he added.

Kamal Krishna Joshi, chairman at the UGC, said that the UGC has already recommended it to the MoE. “First, university need to include it in its annual programme and then government should approve it and assist with additional grants,” he added.

Shrestha said that TU has included it in its annual programme since 2002. “However, we are waiting for the government’s will to make it successful.”

This news article was published on THE HIMALAYAN TIMES in an April issue.